150 Cincinnati Society of Natural Tlisfory. 



family that feeds on an eiidogcii, is not gregarious, and makes no web. 

 At any rate, I fear that the statement that " white moths are naturally 

 attracted to white flowers," is a " rash assumption, made without suffi- 

 cient examination," at least so far as the Tineina are concerned. On the 

 contrary, the inevitable conclusion is, that very few Tineina visit flowers 

 at all; that a very few of these are white, that a great majority are of 

 dark hues, contrasting strongly with the colors of the flowers on which 

 they are found, and that they all belong to the following genera: 3Ii- 

 cropteryx, Adela^ Nematois, Butalis, Gtyphipteryx, Coleophora, and 

 Asycfma, and visit the flowers to feed thereon, in the imago state, and 

 that to these, we may add, Anesychia decemgutteha and Pronuba 

 yuccasella, which visit them to oviposit, and which feed thereon as larvae. 

 Must we add our paradoxical species, which visits them in greater 

 numbers than all the rest, for some unknown purpose, which it is to be 

 hoped Mr. Rile}' will explain? Further, it is well known to all collec- 

 tors of Tineina, that the moths may be looked for, with certaintj' as to 

 finding them, at the proper time, about the food plant of the larva, and 

 not elsewhere; that the abundance of the imago about a plant, especi- 

 ally when it is as conspicuous elsewhere by its absence, as it is thereby 

 its presence, is almost conclusive that it feeds in some way on that 

 plant ; and that when the species of a genus, and a fortiori a famil}- 

 are numerous, and have similar habits; when, for instance, as in Hypo- 

 nonieiita, the}' are gregarious in the larva? state, feeding on exogenous 

 vegetation, and making webs, a species making no web, feeding on an 

 endogen, with solitary larvae, would to sa}' the least of it, be regarded 

 as an anomaly, if not a lusus naturm. Certainly it would be a most 

 wonderful creature if, in addition to these things, it mimicked in orna- 

 mentation, size, habit and habitat the species in whose habitat and 

 company it is found, as closel}'^ as this species mimics Pronuba yuc- 

 casella. 



On the other hand, if the species has the larval habits of Ilypono- 

 meuta., that is, is gregarious, makes webs, and feeds externally on 

 exogens, then its presence in such numbers, and under all the circum- 

 stances, in the yucca flowers, with P. yuccasella.^ and miles awa}' from 

 all exogenous vegetation, is no less anomalous and surprising. If the 

 specimens belong to Hyponomeuta, tin-}' are hedged round with inex- 

 plicable difllculties, which all vanish if they belong to Pronuba. The 

 above remarks, as to the habits of Tineina.^ are not assumptions. 

 They are well established facts, known to all students of the group. 

 Neither can it be pretended that they are hasty generalizations, made 

 without sufficient examination ; for the relations of the Tineina to 

 plants have received as much attention probably from specialists, as 

 those of any other group of equal value among insects. 



